We’ve all heard the saying “you are what you eat” before. There’s a lot of truth to this statement. In general, healthy eating habits lead to a healthy body and unhealthy eating habits lead to an unhealthy body. Did you know the same is true for your mind though? Your mind becomes what you feed it.

How well do you know yourself? This is an honest question. I’m really not trying to be facetious. I’m coming to realize that this is a key component of success in life. Far too many people have not taken a serious look at who they are and what they believe. They just move with the ebb and flow of the people and situations around them.

I recently read an article that cautioned those that are seeking employment about their online habits. The article cautioned that more and more employers are doing online “background checks” of potential employees. They are checking their blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts, etc. The caution was that you want to be careful about the kind of content you have online. Beware of compromising photos, inappropriate comments and other types of content that may not be appropriate.

My question is, should you really worry about it only for that reason? Is it okay just to sanitize it for job search purposes? Shouldn’t you try and BE that person instead?

There are so many people that are concerned in this day and age about their online “privacy”. They get upset when Facebook allows their data to be collected by other sources. They put blocks on their accounts trying to keep unauthorized viewers from accessing their content.

I have a different approach. I try and live my life so that I’m not afraid for anyone to see it. You’re probably not going to find any inappropriate pictures of me at some party, or some off color joke that I sent someone in a personal email. That’s not because I sanitize it. It’s because that’s who I am. What you see is what you get. I’m not trying to be conceited and say I’m better than anyone else. I’m not proud of all the moments in my life. I’m also not afraid to face up to them though.

My suggestion is that instead of trying to live a dual life, you pick one and go with it. I hope you choose wisely.

I recently watched a pretty disturbing video. The video clip is from an MSNBC video with Rachel Maddow. It compares the current BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico to a 1979 oil leak in the Gulf. Unfortunately the situations are eerily similar. What is disturbing to me is not that BP is experiencing this leak. What is disturbing to me is that the same thing happened 31 years ago… and they STILL don’t know how to deal with it! The only difference is that they now can drill in 5000 ft. of water instead of 200 ft.

So how about you? Have you learned anything in the past 31 years (or within whatever timeframe is appropriate to your lifespan)? Mistakes are a fact of life. Failure is a fact of life. The greatest minds on earth have probably failed more times than most of us combined. It’s not the failure that matters. It’s what you learn from the failure.

Don’t allow failures or mistakes in your life to set you back. Learn from them, and then move on. It’s the learning process that differentiates those defined by failure and those that are considered successes in life.